Every Friday, on my way to English class in Kamakura, I stop at the same vending machine in Zushi station and grab a tea for our snack time. I usually try to mix it up and try different teas. In the winter I select a warm tea and in the summer a cold tea.
Each Friday, while selecting my tea de jour, I stare questioningly at the items on the middle row. These items, served warm, are only available during the winter months. Corn chowder, clam chowder, pumpkin soup, and a sweet potato drink. I decided to try three of the four because curiosity got the best of me! (Rule number 8)
One guess as to which of the four I was not willing (ever) to try. If you said corn chowder, I owe you a kit kat!
I brought them home and reheated each container in hot water. I thought they would taste best warm. The first one I tasted was the clam chowder. Much to my surprise, the the chowder was only broth with a very strong salty clam flavor. A bit of false advertisement with the picture. One sip was all I needed. I’m not sure when this would be desirable. Maybe before or during and ultra marathon when you need a massive amount of salt for your body to continue functioning. Or starving. Or without tastebuds. Or maybe, it is intended to be used as a soup base and diluted. I’ll have to ask Miki.
Next up was the sweet potato drink. It tasted like a very sweet roasted sweet potato. It was drinkable. I did manage to drink most of it. Did I mention it was sweet?
The final taste test was the pumpkin chowder. I enjoy eating kabocha, Japanese winter squash, and I thought this had potential. It was the most delicious of the three. At only 45 calories, it could be a nice little pick-me-up if you needed a warm afternoon snack.
Needless to say, I chased the three of them down with a chu hi. Peach was my flavor de jour. Glad I did the peach taste test a couple weeks ago. Back to rule number 10, just taste it. Happy Friday! Kanpie!
